


Fragment

by Elenhin



Series: shards and fragments [1]
Category: The Almighty Johnsons
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-26
Updated: 2014-02-26
Packaged: 2018-01-13 21:03:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1240726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elenhin/pseuds/Elenhin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An Expansion of the One Word At a Time by Aramirandme81.</p>
<p>The word was Fragment, the line was. “If you don’t clean out a wound properly it will fester.” The doctor says and shows them the fragment of wood that he’s just dug out of Anders neck.</p>
<p>This also plays on Shards, Dawn was furious to find the slivers of glass left in the scars after Valerie smashed a glass in Anders face, now there are fragments of wood left in the scar on his neck, how will she take this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fragment

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aramirandme81](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aramirandme81/gifts).



> For Aramirandme81, for not just letting me play, but ordering me too.

Fragment

 

It amused Dawn to no end when she realized that one reason Anders will never sit at his desk for a full day is that he prefers the hot spots where the sun falls in. He’ll be lounging on the couch instead, because that’s where the sun is, and he works better this way.

 

Today though he’s been avoiding it, staying out of the sunlight entirely. He’s also been completely disinterested in his work. Sitting in front of his screen without really looking at it, fiddling with a pen or anything else on his desk.

 

Maybe to a point this is normal behaviour for Anders, he’s just that way. On occasion hard working, on some occasions even working much too hard. Anders can go a month without hardly giving a hand, or, two weeks  where he hardly even leave his desk.

 

Anders wasting away a day is not in itself cause for concern, but this time it does make Dawn worry. She would have thought Anders would be giving this campaign everything he had and then some.  They are after all working for a company who specializes in skimpy bikinis.

 

There’s a girl on his screen even now, a shy looking thing in a yellow polka-dot bikini and yet Anders is not looking.  

 

He keeps shifting uncomfortably though, tugging at his shirt as if it no longer fits him.

 

Needing a break herself she gets up to have a glass of water, “would you like some coffee Anders?”

 

She frowns when he slips a finger under his collar as if he has not even heard her. “Anders?”

 

“What?” looking up he blinks confused.

 

“Would you like some coffee?” walking over to his desk she shakes her head. “Are you feeling alright Anders, you’ve looked better you know.”

 

Shrugging he rubs at his eyes, “I’m fine Dawn, just trying to figure out what to do with this.”

 

“Anders, it’s a skinny blond woman in a bikini too small to be decent. If you have to think about this, then something has to be really wrong,” she folds her arms across her chest. “And you really don’t look too good, what’s wrong?” There’s a flush to his face that makes her believe he could be ill, especially since it’s spreading down his neck.

 

Looking closer though she frowns, it’s not spreading down his neck, but up.

 

“I’m fine,” he brushes it off with that tone of voice that Dawn only knows too well. It’s a wonder he still tries it because she does not fall for it anymore. It’s when yes, something is wrong, but Anders for some reason that is not comprehensible to her, will not admit it.

 

Walking around his desk she puts the back of her hand to his forehead, and while he tries to squirm away with a yelp she puts a hand on his neck so she can get a better view.

 

“Anders, what is this?” she demands. the skin on his neck is burning hot, it feels wrong, and she can tell there is pus under the skin.

 

Pulling away sharply he raises his own hand, “Ow, that hurts!”

 

“I’m not surprised,” she muses. “There’s an infection of some sort here.”

 

“No there’s not,” Anders grabbed his laptop again, trying to ignore her.

 

“There is an infection, and you’re running a fever,” Dawn folds her arm across her chest. “Are you going to come with me to have it looked at?”

 

“I’ve got work to do,” Anders tells her in that tone of voice that he uses when he wants to make sure that his word is final. He’s quite pleased with it when she returns to her desk with a shrug.

 

He is not pleased at all when the door opens later and all three of his brothers enter.

 

“Oh fuck!” he sighs leaning back in his chair, glaring at Dawn.

 

“I’ve given up arguing with you,” Dawn shrugs. “Now, are you going to come with us to the doctor?”

 

“No,” but he knows he’s fighting a lost battle. Ty grabs his jacket, Axl half glares at him, and Mike, Mike has that look on his face that Anders hates. Something between annoyance and concern. The one he hates because he almost feels bad if he ignores it.

 

“Come on Anders, any idiot can see you’re sick,” Mike sighs.

 

“Yeah, you look like crap bro,” Axl puts in.

 

“Which would prove that point,” Ty actually gives a small grin. “Come on Anders, you know it’s only gonna get worse if you don’t, and it could be serious.”

 

“Serious enough you’d have to be admitted for a couple of days,” Mike adds. “Several days in a room with sick people Anders. Or we go now, and you can go home as soon as they’re done.”

 

“No,” Anders insists, but this time Ty smiles. Anders knows he’s going to lose this, he just won’t go down without a fight.

 

“You look like shit ‘bro, and you’re sick, I can tell from here,” he smiles. “And you know if you don’t come along we’re not just gonna be walking away. If you go along voluntarily though, I’ll cook tonight, for all of us, and throw in cupcakes for you.”

 

Anders ponders it for a moment, “what about the bowls?” he demands.

 

“You’ll get both,” Ty can’t help but grin. “Axl will leave them alone.”

 

“Fine,” taking his jacket he goes to follow with a pout. After all, his neck is smarting enough he was starting to think of going himself. This way though, he has something to look forward to after.

 

“You coming along?” Ty asks Dawn who is picking up her purse.

 

“I’m not missing your cooking,” she smiles. “I’ll be along.”

 

The fact that Anders continues to give everyone halfhearted glares affects no one, which is why he only makes a halfhearted attempt at it. No point in using his best effort when he knows it’s futile. It’s mainly only to demonstrate a point, that this is something he does not want to do.

 

The worst part is really the waiting room and though he tries to stop himself he can’t help but fidget. Ty has to smile when Anders makes sure he’s sitting in the middle. As far away from the other patients as he can manage. Still giving a shudder when someone coughs.

 

The doctor, when he calls his name is a bit confused why three grown men and a woman follows. “I only need the patient.”

 

“The patient doesn’t like hospitals and doctors,” Mike stated with a small grin. “And is pretty good at escaping.”

 

“Hospital phobia,” Ty put in. “So we’re here to make sure he doesn’t get away, and that we know what he’s supposed to do after.”

 

“It’s easier this way,” Mike nodded.

 

The doctor looked a bit confused but started the examination, frowning as he checked the inflamed area on Anders neck. “There is something in here, an abscess. I will have to drain it.”

 

“Can’t you just give me antibiotics or something?” Anders demanded.

 

“Not when it’s this far gone,” he shook his head. “Have you had any injury, any cuts to your neck lately? There is a faint scar here, and something caused this.”

 

“Yeah, there was a cut,” Anders looked at Axl who swallowed hard. He knew exactly what cut, but there was no blame in Anders eyes. He just looked resigned and Axl wasn’t sure if that made him feel any better at all.

 

“This will sting a bit,” the doctor breaks his train of thought as he prepares a syringe and makes a small injection on either side of the inflamed area with Anders wincing and fidgeting. Then he makes a small cut, catching the foul smelling pus on some tissue paper as it pours out of the wound. Anders makes a gagging noise and Dawn steps forward. Taking his hand even if she thinks he might not like that, but in a way he looks relieved that she does.

 

“Now, let’s see if we can’t find the cause of this,” the doctor muses as he picks up a pair of tweezers. Carefully he extracts the foreign objects, rinsing them off in some water and putting them aside as he makes sure there is nothing left in the cut.

 

“If you don’t clean out a wound properly it will fester.” The doctor says and shows them the fragment of wood that he’s just dug out of Anders neck. “No wonder you had an infection,” he shakes his head. “This could have been quite serious if you had left it alone any longer. Possibly blood poisoning. What caused this anyway?”

 

“He was renovating,” Anders jerked a thumb towards Mike. “Had a huge pile of rubbish and I tripped. Cut myself on something.”

 

The doctor appears to buy this explanation, but Dawn does not. She waits while the man disinfects the wound properly and writes a prescription for antibiotics. After he has covered it with a gauze pad and told them they can go though she turns to face them to demand some answers.

 

“What really happened?” she demands, arms folded across her chest. “I don’t believe you tripped and fell on a heap of junk, and I want to know the truth.”

 

“Long story short,” Anders stretched his neck, it felt really weird now what with the injection having numbed all feeling to that side of his neck. “I slept with his girlfriend, even if  it wasn’t by choice,” he added as he nodded towards Axl. Not that anyone cared, but it wasn’t. “He got pissed and threw me on the rubbish pile so I sliced my neck open.”

 

“What!” Dawn looked between them. “You could have been killed by a cut like that.”

 

Anders gave a wry smirk at that, and Axl ducked his head coughing.

 

“You,” Dawn looked between them, shocked. “You nearly was killed, weren’t you?” She felt cold, stunned. As much as Anders could be a prick, he was also a friend. She remembered how Axl had stormed into the office, demanding to know where Anders was. She thought they had been able to settle it, but apparently not as smoothly as it had seemed.

 

“It’s fine now Dawn, we settled it,” Anders shrugged. “And the whole slicing me open was an accident, he did not mean to do that.”

 

“That’s no excuse,” she glared at Axl, who ducked in behind Ty to Anders amusement. Usually he was the one trying to hide behind his brother. “You could have killed him. I don’t care what he did, I don’t mind if you hit him if he deserves it, but you could have actually killed him.”

 

“I really didn’t mean to do that,” Axl mumbles. “And Michele fixed him.”

 

“Except there was wood fragments festering,” Dawn wasn’t easing up her glare yet. “Wasn’t the glass he still had in those old cuts bad enough? Now wood fragments festering, you’re not gonna give up before you kill him, are you?”

 

“Almost makes me want to X-ray him and see what else is there,” Ty mused, winking at Mike. He knew it was serious, but Anders was starting to look just a little too smug as Dawn was scolding them.

 

“Might be a good idea,” I still haven’t found my wrench,” Mike grinned, enjoying the cross look Anders was suddenly giving him.

 

“Okay, enough,” Dawn cut in. “Just, just stop trying to kill him anytime he makes you mad.”

 

“Sure, we’ll try,” Mike promised. “Now, I’m getting hungry so we might as well get home, have that meal.”

 

“Yeah, no problem,” Ty agreed.

 

“Do we know where the piano went?” Mike couldn’t help himself, and Anders glared at him  though even Dawn laughed at that. Axl however blinked confused as they left the building.

 

“What glass?” he looked at Anders. He was pretty sure there hadn’t been any glass in that rubbish pile. “What did I miss?”

 

Glacing that way Ty mumbled under his breath, “not Anders, that’s for sure.”

 

“I’ve already said I’m sorry,” Axl pouted. “I didn’t mean to do that.”

 

“And no matter what happened, I did not mean to sleep with Gaia,” Anders rubbed his neck. There was an unpleasant tingling there now.

 

“So, what glass, there was never any glass,” Axl pressed and Anders exchanged a look with Mike who shrugged. He had loved Valerie, really and truly loved her, but no matter what had been going on at the moment with the hormone treatments, there was no excuse for what she had done to Anders.

 

“I had a fight with Val,” Anders sighed. “You know we were always arguing, and she was on some Hippie nature hormone thing, got pissed with me and smashed a wineglass in my face. When they cleaned up the mess they left some slivers. They’re gone now though.”

 

“But they were shifting and you could have lost the eye,” Dawn declared. “This is serious, you could have been seriously hurt, both then and now. What is it going to take before you realize that, all of you.”

 

“Dawn,” Mike started slowly. “We all know it’s not right.”

 

“Damn straight it’s not right,” she stated. “I know how mad he can make you, and how he can be an idiot and a prick, but he’s not the only one here.”

 

“No, he’s not,” Ty nodded in agreement. They were all guilty of that from time to time.

 

“So you really have no right to hit him, he’s smaller than you for Christ’s sake,” Dawn fixed Axl with a firm glare.

 

Anders looked a bit offended by it which made Mike smile. “We are trying to better ourselves Dawn, more talking less hitting.”

 

“Good,” she nodded. “I hope so, and that goes for you too Anders.”

 

“Me,” Anders looked at her, confused. “I don’t hit them, what do you think I am, suicidal?”

 

“Well, don’t piss them off so they hit you, because that’s just as suicidal,” she pointed out.

 

“I never piss them off so they will hit me,” he pointed out dryly. “I piss them off because someone has to tell the fucking truth. Hitting me, is their own idea. And right now this is a pain in the neck, a literal pain in the neck. So, I’d suggested that Pillsbury Doughboy goes home and make those cupcakes I was promised before this gets so bad I don’t want to eat anymore.”

 

“Dinner first Anders,” Mike tried.

 

“No, cupcakes first, because it already hurts enough I’m not having dinner unless I get some drugs first,” Anders told him firmly.

 

“Alright,” Mike chuckled. “Ty, you take him home and get him started on the cupcakes, I’ll get the prescription filled and pick up something for the pain.”

 

“Sure,” Ty agreed. “I guess I’d better make it a double batch, one I promised him and one for us.”

 

“That’s not gonna be a lot,” Axl pouted. “You always make them really tiny.”

 

Ty sighed, and Mike groaned while Dawn gave an amused look and Anders an impatient glare that seemed to suggest that he was being ignored in his suffering.

 

“Alright, triple batch,” Ty agreed. “If you go with Mike so I can make them in peace, second thought, you too Dawn. I promised Anders the bowls, and that’s not gonna work with either of you around.”

 

“Not fair,” Axl pouted but he followed Mike and Dawn anyway while Anders went with Ty. It was hurting, and he did consider himself suffering. If nothing else he deserved the sympathy because they had totally forgiven Gaia and yet blamed him. So yes, he was really, really suffering, and would be until he had the cupcakes.

  
It was hard to suffer too much to enjoy getting a whole batch of Ty’s cupcakes to yourself.

 

The End

 

Please comment, the Cricket is hungry.... 


End file.
